


Fluffy Into The Woods

by Hils



Series: The Fluffy Files [23]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2001-08-20
Updated: 2001-08-20
Packaged: 2018-10-09 17:20:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,149
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10417164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hils/pseuds/Hils





	

Sick didn't even begin to cover the way Buffy felt as she stood watching two vampire whores sucking on Riley. _Riley_. Her brain was desperately trying to tell her that she was imagining all this. That the man before her wasn't the man who shared her bed. Riley was a good, clean, decent guy. He wouldn't do this, surely.

"Buffy?" Riley choked, scrambling for his shirt and doing his best to push the vampires away from him.

That was all she needed to hear. That one word, her name, in the voice that she would have recognised anywhere. The voice that had proclaimed love for her on countless occasions. It was then that she knew that she wasn't imagining this. It was real.

She turned and ran.

Spike stayed for a moment longer, relishing in the fact that Buffy had finally seen that her perfect boyfriend wasn't so perfect. He had his dark side just like everyone else. Shooting Riley a smug grin he turned and ran after Buffy.

Riley wanted to follow, to try and offer some sort of explanation, but the blood loss had weakened him and he could barely manage to stand. All he could think about was that he just lost the best thing that had ever happened to him. And it was all Spike's fault

* * *

"Buffy, wait!" Spike called, running after the Slayer as she tore down the alley, almost as though her life depended on it.

Finally he caught up with her and grabbed her arm, spinning her back around to face him.

"I just though you should know." He said softly, trying his hardest not to gloat. Even he could see that this wasn't the time.

Her fist shot out and connected sharply with his jaw, sending him stumbling backwards.

"Why?" Buffy spat, winding up for another punch. "What on earth made you think I would want to see that?"

Spike stayed back, worried that the next time her hand hit him it would be holding a stake. "I-I just."

But Buffy wasn't listening. "Is this your way of getting back at me? That chip in your head won't let you hit me so you decide to use someone else to hurt me?"

"Hey!" Spike protested, forgetting his concerns and moving back towards her. "I had nothing to do with your boytoy coming here. He made his own choices and I just wanted you to see for yourself. Or perhaps you'd prefer it if he was doing it behind your back. Spending his nights in the sack with you and then heading here afterwards to get that little bit of extra pleasure."

Buffy's fist shot out again but Spike was ready this time, catching her by the wrist and holding it tight. Buffy struggled for a moment but lost her balance, falling against Spike as she tried to get free. Instinctively his arms wrapped around her and that was it. The slight feeling of comfort she got from being held broke down the last of her emotional walls and began to cry, burying her face in his shoulder as sobs wracked her body.

Spike was a little surprised at the display of emotion but he didn't let go. Instead he reached up one hand and began to gently stroke her hair.

"Oh God, this is all my fault." Buffy cried, her voice muffled by the leather of Spike's coat.

"No." Spike replied, not letting go of her. "If Riley couldn't deal with your strength then that's his problem. Nobody told him to come to this place."

Buffy pulled back, sniffling and suddenly very embarrassed about breaking down in front of Spike.

"I should go."

As she turned to leave Spike caught hold of her arm, more gently this time, and turned her back to face him. Buffy was too emotionally drained to fight. It was all she could do to stay on her feet.

"I'll walk you back." He said gently. "You don't look like you're up to much fighting tonight."

Buffy's face hardened. "I don't need your help. I can take care of myself."

Spike sighed. "You don't have to be the strong all the time you know. Just let me walk you home and I promise if we get attacked by anything I'll let you do all the fighting and get yourself killed."

Buffy knew he was right. She barely had the strength to make a fist but she certainly wasn't going to admit it.

"Fine, let's go." She sighed. "I just want to get out of this place."

She turned and began to walk, making it a few feet before she stumbled and fell to her knees. Spike rolled his eyes. She had to be the most stubborn girl he had ever met. It was one of the things he loved about her.

Walking over to her he picked her up in his arms and began to carry her back towards her house. What amazed him even more was that she didn't even argue with him. The last of her fight had been drained. Instead she rested her head on his shoulder and allowed him to be the strong one for once.

* * *

The house was in darkness as Spike approached. He wasn't surprised. He knew Joyce was still in hospital and there was no way Buffy would have left Dawn alone. Most likely she was staying with Willow and Tara.

He looked down at Buffy. She'd been silent throughout the whole trip and he wondered if she'd fallen asleep.

"We're here." He said softly, not wanting to wake her if she really was asleep.

"Ok." She whispered.

She clearly didn't want to move just yet so Spike opened the door and carried her into the kitchen, setting her down on one of the stools. She just sat there, staring away into nothing.

"You...um....want something hot to drink?" Spike asked, hating the way she looked so lost and knowing he'd been the one to do this to her.

Buffy raised her head and looked at him, almost seeming surprised to see him in her kitchen.

"I'll make some hot chocolate." Spike said, answering the question for her. He flipped on the kettle and got everything ready, trying to ignore the way he could feel her eyes burning into his back. She was watching him, and he wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not.

"Here you go." He finally said, setting a steaming mug of hot chocolate down in front of her and taking a sip out of his own. Buffy merely stared at the mug as though she didn't know what to do with it.

"Come on, pet. Drink up." Spike coaxed. "You don't want it to get cold."

Finally she raised the mug to her lips and took a small sip. She looked at Spike again.

"Why are you doing this?" She asked quietly, taking another sip of her drink. The warmth bringing some element of warmth back into her numb body.

"Doing what?" Spike asked, taking a seat opposite her.

"This. Bringing me home, fixing me a drink. You're acting like my mom."

Spike shrugged, not really having an answer, or at least not one he was willing to share with her. Somehow he didn't think a declaration of love would go down very well after what had just happened.

"How is your mum, pet?" He asked, hoping she wouldn't notice the change of subject.

Buffy looked surprised. How did Spike know about her mom? Then she remembered. How could she forget the night Spike had found her crying on the porch and had listened as she poured her heart out to him?

"She came out of surgery yesterday." She said. "The doctors think she's going to make a full recovery."

Spike smiled. "That's great news. I always liked your mum."

Buffy stared at him. Where was the big bad vampire who was supposed to hate her? Spike was actually being kind and considerate which freaked her out more than anything she could fight.

She drained her mug and stood up. "It's been a really long day. I'm going to go to bed and try and figure out what I'm going to do."

Spike nodded. "I'm sorry you had to see Riley like that."

Ok, now Spike was apologising. This was definitely too weird. Maybe if she went to bed she'd wake up and find it had all been a horrible nightmare. She could only hope.

"Goodnight, Spike." She said, not really knowing what else to say.

He nodded. "Night, Slayer."

And with that he had disappeared out of the back door and back into the night. With a sigh Buffy decided to leave the mugs until the morning. She was too tired to do anything else. Trudging wearily up the stairs she entered her room and kicked off her shoes and flopped face down onto the bed. She was asleep before her head even hit the pillow.

* * *

Joyce sighed as she lay in bed, trying her best not to feel too bored. She was lucky to be alive after all. Her head still hurt a little but the painkillers she was being given kept most of the pain at bay. Now all she was being told to do was to rest and focus on getting well. But she'd never been one for just lying around. She had to be _doing_ something. And it was a little difficult to find something to do at three in the morning. She couldn't read as it hurt her head. Everyone else seemed to be asleep so she couldn't watch TV. And of course she had no one to talk to.

Or so she thought. A soft knock at the door brought her out of her thoughts.

"Come in." She called softly, not wanting to wake anyone. Although she couldn't imagine who would be knocking on her door at this time.

She got her answer when the door opened and Spike's head peered around the corner.

"You awake?" He whispered softly.

Joyce smiled, a little surprised at the visit but happy to see him nonetheless. "I'm awake, come in Spike."

As Spike entered the room Joyce noticed he was carrying a bunch of wild flowers and she smiled again, it was amazing how people surprised you.

Spike pushed the door shut and came over to the bed, holding out the flowers.

"I had to pick these. None of the florists seem to be open at this time."

Joyce smiled and took them from him, placing them in a vase of water by her bed.

"They're lovely. Thank you."

Spike seemed a little embarrassed and merely nodded. "I just came by to see how you were doing. Buffy said you were getting better."

Motioning for him to take a seat, Joyce altered the bed so that she was sat up properly.

"I have to stay in another week for observation but after that I should be able to go home."

Spike smiled. "Glad to hear it. I can see where Buffy gets her strength from."

Now it was Joyce's turn to smile. "I just can't wait to get out of this bed."

Spike nodded. "I get that. I had an accident a few years ago and was stuck in a wheelchair for a couple of months. I just wanted to get out and carry on with my life."

"Well, if you can beat it then so can I." Joyce replied, a look of determination on her face that Spike had seen on Buffy many times.

"So, have you seen Buffy?" Joyce asked. "Is she all right? How's Dawn?"

"Haven't seen much of the nibblet, but I think she's ok. She's been spending time with the others while Buffy patrols. She seems happy enough."

"And what about Buffy?" Joyce asked. "Is she coping all right?"

Spike nodded. "I was with Buffy tonight. You know her, she's tough."

It wasn't exactly a lie. He hadn't told Joyce that Buffy was fine. But he knew Buffy wouldn't want her worrying. Best not to mention that things with Riley weren't exactly tip-top at the moment.

Joyce smiled happily and nestled down in the pillows. "I'm so proud of Buffy, I hope she knows that."

Spike smiled. "She knows."

Joyce felt her eyes starting to drift shut, but she knew she'd sleep happier now that she knew that her girls were all right.

Spike smiled at Joyce's sleeping form and gently pulled the covers up over her. He really was a sucker for the Summers women. He loved them all in different ways. Maybe someday he'd work up the courage to actually tell them

Slipping out of the door quietly he left Joyce to rest.

* * *

Buffy woke the next morning to find herself lying fully clothed on top of her bed covers. It took a moment for the final traces of sleep to leave her foggy head before the events of the night before came crashing down on her. It hadn't been a dream, she was sure of it.

She grabbed a towel and headed for the bathroom. She wasn't ready to face Riley yet so she decided that she'd go and visit her mom. That. at least, should keep her mind off what had happened.

* * *

"Morning." Buffy smiled cheerfully as she entered her mother's room, happy to see that she was awake.

Joyce smiled in return, happy to see her daughter looking so cheerful. Spike had been right; she really was doing fine.

"Oooh, pretty flowers." Buffy admired as she took a seat by the bedside.

"They're from Spike." Joyce replied. "He stopped by last night to see how I was getting on."

Buffy suddenly felt as thought the floor had been pulled out from underneath her. Spike had been there? After what had happened with Riley? Oh god, what had he told her mother?

"Spike was here?" She tried to ask casually. "What did you guys talk about?"

Joyce shrugged. "Nothing much. He asked how I was feeling and I asked him how you and Dawn were doing."

Again Buffy felt the sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach.

"What did he say?" She asked weakly

"He said that you were both doing fine, and that you were being the strong, brave girl I always knew you were."

Stunned didn't even begin to cover the way Buffy felt. Not only had Spike visited her mother and bought her _flowers_. But he's deliberately not told her about everything that had happened. That just wasn't Spike. Something was definitely going on and it was up to her to find out what it was.

"You know, it's strange." Joyce mused, oblivious to the thoughts going through her daughter's head. "I really have problems thinking of Spike as a vampire. He's always just seemed like he needs a bit of love."

She shook her head and laughed. "I don't know what I'm saying."

Buffy smiled, it was nice to hear her mom laugh again.

A knock on the door distracted them both and one of the doctors stepped into the room.

"Miss Summers, we need to perform a few routine tests on your mother just to check how things are going."

Buffy stood up. "I guess that's my cue to leave."

She leant down and pressed a kiss to her mother's cheek. "I'll come back and see you later."

Joyce smiled and nodded. "Ok, honey. Maybe you could bring Dawn with you."

Buffy nodded. "Sure, she'd like that."

Leaving the doctor to do his work Buffy headed outside. She'd intended to go back home but instead she found herself walking towards Spike's crypt. Looked like they were going to have that talk a little sooner than she'd thought.

* * *

Spike sat in his armchair, half-heartedly watching one of the many daytime soap operas. Normally he enjoyed a good bit of trashy TV but today his heart just wasn't in it. Every few minutes his mind would wander back to the look of pain on Buffy's face when she saw Riley in the whorehouse. Knowing that he'd been the one to cause that pain bothered him more than he'd like. It wasn't supposed to be like this. Loving Buffy was one thing but feeling her pain when she hurt was something he'd never experienced before. Maybe this was what love _really_ felt like.

He didn't even look up when he heard the door to his crypt open. He didn't need to. He knew who it was.

"Figured you'd show up eventually." Spike muttered, not looking away from the screen. "Thought it might have been a bit sooner but I guess it takes a while to recover from those bites."

Riley didn't reply, he merely dragged Spike out of his chair by the shirt. Spike caught a brief glimpse of feral anger in Riley's eye and realised that taunting him perhaps wasn't such a good idea, especially since the chip stopped him from being able to defend himself.

_Too late_ , he thought as the punches started raining down on his face and body.

Riley didn't know how long he spent venting all his anger and frustrations on Spike. It felt like hours but was probably only a few minutes. To his credit though, Spike was still standing and didn't look like he was going anywhere. He even looked smug about it.

_Well, I'll soon fix that_. Riley thought as he withdrew the stake from inside his jacket. Spike's eyes widened when he saw it and that only made plunging it into his chest even more satisfying.

What did surprise him though was that the moment he staked Spike, two screams rang out through the crypt. One was an agonised cry from Spike, which Riley had expected. The other, however, came from Buffy who was stood in the doorway staring at him with horror and disgust.

Buffy didn't know what to do or how to react. If seeing Riley being bitten by vampires was bad enough, then seeing him stake Spike was something a whole lot worse. She didn't even realise she'd screamed until Riley had turned to face her.

"Buffy? What are you doing here?" He asked, almost as if there was nothing wrong.

Buffy couldn't even bring herself to look at him though; her eyes were fixed on Spike whose face was twisted in agony. It took a few minutes for her brain to actually process the fact that Spike wasn't dust when he should be. This finally seemed to snap her out of the shock and she marched over to the two men.

Riley quickly pulled the stake out and let Spike slump to the floor.

"Buffy, it's not a real stake. It's just plastic. I wanted-"

He was prevented from continuing by the flat of Buffy's hand connecting sharply with his cheek, sending his head snapping to the side.

"I don't know you." She hissed. "Where the hell do you get off coming in here and staking Spike like that, especially after what I saw last night."

Riley looked at her desperately. He'd never intended for things to go this far.

"Buffy, it's not like that. Spike only showed you that place to get us to split up. He's got some sort of stupid crush on you."

But Buffy didn't care. She didn't care what Spike's motives were. It was what she had seen with her own eyes that mattered. And what she had seen was a total role reversal. Spike had been kind and gentle with her, taking care of her and checking up on her mother while Riley was embracing the darkness, paying for vampires to bite him and beating someone who couldn't fight back. She didn't understand it and she wasn't sure she wanted to.

"Buffy, we have to be able to work this out." Riley pleaded, desperation in his eyes. "I need to know if you can ever forgive me. And I need to know tonight. The army wants me back. If I've got nothing to stay here for then I'm leaving. Now."

Buffy couldn't believe this. After all Riley had done he was more or less trying to blackmail her into begging him to stay.

"Riley." She said softly, looking up so that her eyes met his. "Get out."

He opened his mouth to protest but Buffy quickly silenced him.

"I can't even stand to look at you anymore. I feel like I don't know you. So go. Go and play the hero somewhere else. Somewhere where they don't know any different. Just stay away from me."

The firm look on her face told Riley all he needed to know. It was really over.

"Goodbye, Buffy." He said softly, but she couldn't even bring herself to look at him. She kept her head bowed until she heard the crypt door close. Then she crouched down beside Spike who was clutching his chest in pain.

"Can you stand if I help you?" Buffy asked gently.

Not trusting himself to speak Spike merely nodded, wincing as Buffy slipped an arm around his waist and helped him over to the chair Riley had pulled him from.

"Let me try and clean this up." Buffy said again, moving over to the chest in the corner of the crypt. She pulled out the few medical supplies Spike owned and a bottle of water from her own bag before moving back to him.

"I'm going to need to take your shirt off to look at that wound." She said apologetically. "It might be easier if I just cut it."

Still not speaking Spike merely nodded and Buffy pulled a pair of scissors out of the first aid supplies she'd found. "I'll try not to hurt you too much."

This made Spike smile despite it all. "Don't think it really matters now. I doubt anything is going to beat the hole in my chest."

Buffy gave a small smile in return. "Well, I think you've had enough pain for one day. I'll try and be gentle."

True to her word Spike barely felt any pain, the only moment coming when she had to tug the cloth away where it had stuck to his wound. Even then it didn't hurt as much as the staking itself had.

As Buffy began to clean the wound and apply some gauze Spike tried to process what he'd just seen happen.

"What are you doing?" He finally asked, his voice still heavily laced with pain.

Buffy looked up from her task in confusion. "I'm patching you up. What does it look like?"

Spike shook his head. "I mean why are you here. You just let the bloke you love walk out without even thinking about it."

Buffy lowered her head and resumed what she was doing. "I don't love him. I'm not sure I ever did, not really. And no matter what he says I don't think Riley really loved me. He was in love with the idea of what he thought I should be. That's why he was at that place. What I was and what I had to give him wasn't enough. He's better off back in the army where he belongs."

"Wanker didn't know a good thing when he had it." Spike muttered, wincing as Buffy tightened the bandage around his chest.

Buffy looked up at him and was amazed to see that he was serious. What surprised her more was that she realised that Spike was pretty much the only person she knew that she could be herself around. All the others, most of the time without even realising it, wanted her to be strong, dependable and a protector. She was all of those things, but when she was with Spike all she had to be was Buffy. He didn't envy her strength, expect her to be anything.

As she finished cleaning his wounds she leant up and placed a gentle kiss on his forehead. Spike looked puzzled.

"What was that for?"

Buffy shrugged. "For being you. And for letting me be me."

He smiled. "Wouldn't have you any other way."

She leant forward again, this time kissing him softly on the lips. "I know."

The kiss was enough to stupefy Spike for a moment, but when he regained his senses he couldn't help but let a huge smile spread across his face. It seemed to be contagious because a moment later Buffy found herself smiling too.

"You know." Spike finally said. "I'm always here if you ever need anything."

Buffy pressed another soft kiss to his lips. "I know that too."

Finally she helped him to his bier and got him settled down so that he could rest and heal. Once he was sleeping she headed out into the daylight, her heart feeling much lighter than it had when she'd walked in. She knew something now that she hadn't realised before.

She wasn't alone.

The End


End file.
